by Coaches Francisco Neto and Manuela Tesse gave their assessment on yesterday’s encounter in Leiria, the changes and their verdict on their respective teams’ group stage performances, as concluded with a 3-1 victory for Portugal. Malta’s Rachel Cuschieri expressed pride in reaching the 100th appearance, capped off with an assist, while expressing an eagerness to see the next generation continue to rise. Malta’s goalscorer Maria Farrugia reflected on a match to remember.
Coaches’ Assessment Of The Match
Portugal’s Francisco Neto was happy with the result, including the performance of the team considering the drastic changes in the line-up from Friday’s game against Bosnia & Herzegovina. “The change was necessary. We are in pre-season and we know that Malta is very defensively organised. So, we wanted to bring fresher players into the team. We are happy because it is never easy to change ten players who don’t usually play together and the performance was very good. Now they will return to the clubs and I am certain that in October we will be even better for the play-offs.”
Despite falling to a defeat and ending the group in the bottom place, Malta completed their match against the leaders Portugal by inflicting the first goal in their home. Malta also earned the best result out of the remaining teams in the group in Portuguese territory.
Malta’s Manuela Tesse provided her assessment of the match in view of this, “I’m happy for how we implemented the philosophy because we conceded less goals and we are the only team in the group who came to Portugal and played with a back four and not a back five. We were also the only team willing to press them. I think the desire and the courage to play our game was evident, so I am happy about this.”
Notwithstanding the strength of Portugal, the coach lamented the way goals were conceded, “I think we conceded too softly, our central-backs need to be stronger. If a team scores a goal with good action, I would be first to clap. In fact there was an action which was fantastic from their end around the hour mark and we saved that one. However, I think we made it too easy at times today. We need to improve on this.”
Probed about the changes in line-ups and the substitutions for both teams, Manuela Tesse said, “I think considering that both teams have known that their position in the group is set, we both made a lot of changes to try some new things.”
However, she conceded that although the changes were planned, her hand was forced to replace Ann-Marie Said earlier than desired because of injury, “With Ann-Marie we did not plan to change so early, but she was in pain so we needed to change. She’s been one month and a half in pain, she’s been giving a lot of effort for the team. However, we also had a positive in the return of Emma Xuereb who was very good for us today.”
Manuela Tesse also had words of praise for Stephania Farrugia who filled in as full-back in the past two games, “I am very happy for Steph’s (Stephania Farrugia) performance because I think we found a very strong full-back and this is an area which is lacking depth for us. It is not easy to play in another position at this level and to also play on the left. However, she was excellent and gives a lot for the national team, so very happy for her.”
Farrugia On The Experience & Cuschieri’s 100th
Malta’s goalscorer in the match continued to show her positive trajectory, as she has throughout the competition. The twenty-three year old reflected on playing the match in front of 6,231 spectators, “Today was an experience that I will probably remember for all my life. It was an emotional day, there were a lot of fans in the ground and there was a great atmosphere. Of course, when you’re singing the national anthem and put everything together with the stadium and the people, it’s impossible not to get goosebumps as you go out onto the pitch. I think we used all of this as motivation in the match to give those in the stands the best show of football we could.”
Rachel Cuschieri captained Malta on her 100th appearance, making her the third player to reach this in the history of Malta’s Women’s National Team (following Dorianne Theuma and Stephania Farrugia). Cuschieri expressed the honour in reaching the feat, “I’m proud to reach this milestone, it’s something that I never expected to reach, so I’m very happy to do so.”
Malta’s number eight capped off her appearance with an assist on the night, setting up Maria Farrugia’s strike. Cuschieri noted the importance of the positive performance, “Portugal are a much stronger team on paper than us, but we went onto the pitch and played our game, attacked and gave them a problem. We scored our first goal against such a high ranked opponent, something that I don’t think we had achieved up to this point for as long as I can remember. So, this continues to show the growth in the team.”
Looking forward, Cuschieri noted that there is more work to be done but is buoyed by the future of the team, “There’s still things that we need to improve, to control and impose our presence on the games of course. However, I’m very proud of the team for the growth in this competition. We’ve seen the debuts of Sara (Saliba) and Lexine (Farrugia), while today Maya Lucia also got a start. Kailey Willis is another young forward who also played more minutes for the national team. So despite getting relegated, I think the team has improved with every match and the young players are coming into their own. I’m looking forward to the next games, to keep up this rhythm and keep going forward because there is a lot of potential.”
Assessing The Objectives
Portugal top the group in an unbeaten way, having dropped just two points against Bosnia & Herzegovina in the penultimate group stage match. Francisco Neto suggested he is pleased overall, “We wanted to go back to League A and to qualify to the play-offs, which we have reached. We would have liked to win all the games and we just missed the game against Bosnia & Herzegovina, so that is the only point which we are not happy about. However, the two major objectives have been reached so we are happy.”
Despite not reaching the objective of at least a third-place finish, Manuela Tesse was buoyed by the growth of the team throughout the campaign. “I think we grew a lot in these games and today we showed this. However, now we need to change things, to give more minutes to the younger players.”
She continued, “In these last two games we had two senior debuts of seventeen year old players Lexine Farrugia (on Friday) and Sara Saliba (today). I am very happy with their introductions, they both did well with the opportunity. If they keep working and we can keep growing players like them, then we have a very good future.”
The coach also nodded to the continued introduction of Valentina Rapa at centre-back, “Additionally, we also played Valentina Rapa in her position of central-back, whereas she had played as full-back as she does for her club against Portugal in Malta. We see her potential as a centre-back for the future. Of course, we do not have a lot of depth, so in certain cases we have to rotate and use the versatility of players. However, I am positive for the future.”
Lead Image: Lara Schembri
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